Monday, September 21, 2009

Negotiators from Iran stopped meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency last year when the nuclear watchdog began demanding - allegedly at the behest of the United States and Israel - access to secret military data.By Gareth PorterAsia Times

"VIENNA - Iran stopped meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year over Western allegations of covert Iranian nuclear weapons work because the nuclear agency was demanding access to the designs for its Shahab-3 missile and other secret military data, according to both Iranian and IAEA officials.

The United States and other Western states have cited Iran's refusal to cooperate with the IAEA on resolving issues related to intelligence documents on a purported covert nuclear weapons program as further evidence of its guilt.

"They've been asking for Shahab-3 drawings for about a year," Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told Inter Press Service (IPS) in an interview. "We found out a year ago and that's when we stopped the meetings with IAEA."........"